


Chicken Soup for the Grumpy Scientist Soul

by Eridell



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Kaiju Bros, LiveJournal Prompt, M/M, Mama Newt, Mild Spoilers, Newt ain't having none of your shit today, No Smut, Pacific Rim Kink Meme, Platonic Cuddling, Whump, Whumpy Hermann
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-26
Updated: 2013-08-26
Packaged: 2017-12-24 18:14:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/943095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eridell/pseuds/Eridell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes it takes a stubborn person to make another stubborn person relax.</p><p>Whumpy fluff based off a LJ prompt. Part one of a three-part fic trade with justanotherghostwriter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chicken Soup for the Grumpy Scientist Soul

**Author's Note:**

> The first part of a fic trade with justanotherghostwriter. The prompts I’m filling for them came from the Pacific Rim Kink LiveJournal, and I have two more prompts I will be filling at some point in the near future. This one’s super whumpy, so expect lots of angsty grumbly Hermann. Because honestly, that’s how we like him and we all know it. Enjoy another cavity-inducing dose of Kaiju Bros, you dirty little birdies!
> 
> I should also probably add that I’ve been blaring N*SYNC as I drabble. H/C fluff and Bye Bye Bye is a… weird combination.

Jesus, he hadn’t even said a word to Hermann that day and he was already crabby. Was he just getting that good at annoying his lab partner? Maybe the Kaiju drift had established some kind of subliminal mind connection that meant he could piss off his lab partner merely by letting his brain run its usual rambling circles. How cool would that be!? Can you say “new way to get vengeance for Hermann’s crabby attitude”?

They’d been there since eight that morning and Hermann hadn’t said so much as a grumbling word to him. That in itself was weird. Usually by their first coffee break the old fart had some reason to at least spit out some threat to Newt’s physical existence. Something was… off. Newt had no idea what and quite frankly he was too wrapped up in a new sample of Kaiju innards recovered from the trench to focus his attention on it, but even through his manic excitement as he pulled apart fibrous tissue he couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable with Hermann’s newfound silence. Had the stick in his ass driven up a little further and finally punctured the black hole where his heart was supposed to be or something?

His first indication came from a muffled, ragged cough that broke the silence between them right after lunch. Hermann hadn’t bothered to leave his desk when Newt popped out to grub with Choi (not a weird occurrence in itself), and Newt hadn’t taken three steps back into the work floor when he heard the distinct sound of a chest shaking around a barely contained hacking cough fit.

Newt paused at arm’s length away from his desk, eyes trained on the shaking back across the lab like Hermann was about to explode like an atomic bomb. He coughed again, this one more pronounced and with less effort to muffle it in his coat sleeve before he forced himself to take a breath that shook his entire frame. Several seconds passed before he moved again, a hand raising to grab a file from the meticulously organized shelf to the right of his main monitor. “Stop staring at me,” he finally grumbled out, still faced away from Newt. That dude was scary with how good he was at observing his surroundings sometimes. “You’re creeping me out.”

Newt couldn’t help but chuckle at his partner’s angry growling, moving to throw himself into his desk chair again with his hands folded behind his head. “You’re one to talk. You’re the one that glares at me for a half hour every time I try to make a joke about how stupid your diagrams look.”

Hermann didn’t turn around, but the slight incline of his head signaled a sharp retort was on its way. Whatever he was going to snap back with died with another wave of ragged coughing though, and the tremble of his body was enough to shake his entire desk hard enough for Newt to see his pens wriggling around in their cup. His frown deepened, mouth opening to question Hermann’s sudden bout of sickness when the other scientist held up a hand. “I’m fine. Don’t come near me.”

Typical Hermann. The one time he gets genuinely sick and he still works himself to the bone with that same prickly abrasiveness he always seemed to carry. Newt’s eyes rolled skyward as he sat up in his chair, a hand folding briefly through his hair before he chanced another prod. “Dude, you sound like you’ve got angry, wet kittens in your chest. Are you sure you’re okay?”

Hermann snorted in response, the clogged passage of his nose crackling as he shot out half a breath through his nostrils. “I deal with you on a daily basis. I’m pretty sure a little cough isn’t gonna do anything to me.”

Liar. Way to cover being miserable sick with a quip about how much Newt sucked as a lab partner. Was he really that bad? And even if he was, he really was concerned. If he wasn’t, he would have just made a joke about Hermann sounding like absolute shit and been done with the matter. No, this was different. This was serious, if the now violent tremble of Hermann’s frame was any indication. Newt rose from his chair and chanced a cautious step forward, arms hanging limply at his sides as he watched on with a deepened line of concern growing over his brow. “Look, you don’t sound alright. Come on, let’s at least get you somewhere comfy to lay down for a bit. Your schematics can wait for an hour or two.”

He knew it was gonna take a hell of a lot more than that to pull Hermann Gottleib away from his work, let alone make him accept that he was too sick to be working period. Hermann didn’t stir when the other scientist laid a gentle hand to the tweed-covered pad of his right shoulder, fingers gently pressing into the front of his shoulder in a delicate bid to make him just go with it and accept the help being offered. Stubborn old shit. “Please? I’ll even finish up that finding report for you. Just take a break for a bit.”

Hermann’s head turned upward toward Newt, a glower firmly in place on his sunken, flushed features. Jesus, he really was sick. Like, pinned-in-bed-without-the-ability-to-function sick. That settled it. There was no way Newt was just gonna sit back and let his… (Friend? Coworker? Character foil?) waste away in front of a monitor. The hand clamped down with a firmness that signaled he wasn’t going to let this issue go until he got what he wanted, the other hand mimicing the motion on Hermann’s other shoulder to goad him to his feet.

For once, Hermann didn’t fight. He rose gingerly to his feet, hand groping for his cane as he fought to gain his balance with a slight wobble to his knees. Newt had an arm over his shoulders within moments, stabilizing the larger man against his side before nudging his chair out of the way and turning them both toward the small cluster of couches they kept on the work floor for nights when they had to stay in the lab. “Don’t bother trying to fight me on this, old man,” he stated firmly, gently pulling Hermann into a slow stride and matching his steps as he hauled them both away from the circle of machinery and toward the darkened corner that served as their semi-home away from home.

Hermann remained quiet as he walked, his focus bared down on his feet as he struggled to move at the snail’s pace Newt had established. Even through his thick coat Newt could feel a heady fever burning in his skin, and a slight misstep had Hermann’s flushed forehead pressed to the other’s neck as he let out a few more firecracker coughs. “Easy there, old fart,” he chided, voice toned down but still carrying its usual sarcastic tang as he picked up their pace again and successfully eased Hermann back onto the larger of the two beaten up sofas before reaching to pull his phone from his pocket.

"I know what you’re doing, and I don’t-" Whatever Hermann was about to say was cut off by a reproachful finger being jabbed at his face, chapped lips pinching shut before he let himself lean back into the couch without another word as Newt raised his phone to his ear. "Hey, Choi? Can you do me a favor and see if Medical has some fever reducers or something for a bad cough? Yeah, one of the cadets I worked with yesterday had something nasty, and I wanna stockpile in the workshop in case I catch it. Uh-huh. No, the stronger the better. That kid was a walking land mine of sick. Yeah. Thanks, dude. Lunch is on me tomorrow. Uh-huh. Thanks."

A faint smirk of victory flashed across his features as he ended the call and pocketed his phone, turning back toward Hermann with a triumphant chuckle. “See, was that such a big deal?”

Hermann didn’t seem to care about whatever Newt had called for. He’d curled up into his jacket by the time Newt turned around to gloat, the smirk on his face dropping off immediately as he scooted in to perch on the sofa at the other doctor’s feet. The shaking was getting worse, and the dazed look in his eyes signaled that he wasn’t very far from giving in to exhaustion and passing out. That might be for the better, anyway. It’d be a good hour before Choi showed up with the medicine, and sleeping was a much kinder alternative to laying awake and coughing your lungs straight out of your chest.

But Hermann was fighting it. Even now that he was literally on the verge of keeling over and falling into a coma, he was still actively trying to sit up. Christ, did this dude’s stubbornness ever end? If Newt could take his steadfast bullheadedness and bottle it up he could make a nuclear weapon of annoyance that would destroy even the calmest of nations. When Hermann made to sit up again Newt saw a chance to keep him still, worming his way quickly in between Hermann’s back and the back of the couch. “Stay put or I’ll strap you to the couch and make you lay down,” he warned, arms threading around Hermann’s waist to keep him stuck in place.

It seemed to work. After a few seconds of grunting and half-willed wriggling Hermann fell still again, head flopping back against the arm of the sofa in passive defeat. At least he wasn’t trying to move around anymore. Newt’s head touched down immediately behind his, hands clasped over his navel with his back pinned to his chest in a vice-like grip that he knew Hermann didn’t have the strength to break.

He muttered something after several seconds of awkward silence, Newt’s mind running in panicked circles that screamed that this was weird and Hermann was gonna deck him and oh God what if Choi or someone else walks in until the muttered words snapped him from his reverie and brought him back to the present. “What?” Hermann sounded terrible. Even talking seemed to be an uphill battle. But there was absolutely no way Newt was gonna try and force his mouth shut. That would be weird.

The words came out again, just loud enough to be audible but still cracking like a fireplace. “Thank you.”

Newt fell silent, letting the words bounce around between his ears as he ran his tongue across his lips anxiously. Had Hermann Gottleib just offered gratitude for something? Like, genuine gratitude? He had to be frying his brain from fever to do that. Nevertheless Newt pushed through his own shock and offered up a gentle squeeze of his arms in return, hands releasing their death grip to lay palms down against Hermann’s midsection over the rough fabric of his coat. “Don’t mention it.”

He paused to chuckle. “No seriously, don’t mention this to anyone. I don’t wanna see you keel over and die in your office chair.” He didn’t need to explain that he was laying there with a death grip around Hermann’s middle in an awkward spooning bear hug because he was genuinely worried for his colleague’s physical well being. The gentle roll of Hermann’s shoulders into his chest was more than enough to signal that the mutual understanding was there, and once the moment was over and Hermann got himself medicated they would go right back to being snarky pricks to each other whenever humanly possible.

That was fine. For now, a reprieve from their vicious banter in favor of something a little more humane was a welcome relief. At the very least, it helped to put to rest the remaining doubt in his head of Hermann’s view on their friendship. They were friends. Through the nasty comments and full out verbal brawls, they were friends and would gladly bend over backward for the other to make sure their well being was taken care of.

With a gentle roll Hermann slumped back into Newt’s chest, eyes finally falling shut with a few ragged breaths before they evened out and he let himself slip away into sleep. Thank God. Sleep was the best thing for him, and knowing that he’d successfully drifted off even with Newt clinging to his back felt… good. It was nice to know that someone in this cold, cruel world was willing to be any kind of genuine with him. Hermann Gottleib didn’t throw his trust around willy-nilly, and being this vulnerable with someone was not something to be taken lightly.

Before long Newt found himself beginning to nod off, managing to scoot in and press his forehead to the nape of Hermann’s neck with a weary grunt before sleep claimed him as well. Screw Choi. He could bribe his silence with coffee and sugary breakfast food later. Right now, his friend needed him. He had no intentions of going anywhere until they were back to their normal vicious banter and not a second sooner.

**Author's Note:**

> Like what you just read? Come find me on Tumblr and throw me a prompt!
> 
> http://eridell.tumblr.com


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